The 10 Biggest Movie News Stories of 2012

Rich Ross era comes to an end at Disney

There have been very few television executives who have been able to transition successfully to the world of cinema. A little under a decade ago, Gail Berman left a cushy and successful gig at FOX to become the president of production at Paramount Pictures. It was a massive failure with Berman shown the door within two years. After shockingly and perhaps mistakenly dismissing popular Walt Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook, Disney CEO Bob Iger replaced him with Disney Channel topper Rich Ross. The idea was that Ross would be able to foster new family friendly franchises that could corporately serve all of Disney's divisions. The problem was making good movies wasn't part of Ross' directive let alone making any films at all. Like Berman before him, Ross just did not get enough films into development and it cost him. Without Pixar, Disney Animation and new distribution partner DreamWorks Studios, the studio would have effectively been at a standstill in 2012. It didn't help that Ross seemed to care more about having his picture taken on the red carpet and canvasing Toronto, Sundance and Cannes for talent that didn't fit his corporate mantra. After letting Ross go, Iger did a 180 degree about face and brought on Alan Horn who had a successful and productive run at Warner Bros. Pictures. Horn, who had been politically pushed to retire from WB to provide a jr. executive a promotion, is under the directive to get product and more quality films out there and for all ages.